Many patients getting wrong medicine

Press, 22 December 1978, Page 5

Many patients getting wrong medicine

NZPA Sydney An error rate of 13 per cent and probably higher occurs in giving patients medicines in New South Wales public hospitals, according to a survey at Liverpool District Hospital in the outer western suburbs of Sydney. To reduce mistakes the hospital is considering making patients responsible for taking their own medicines. The survey was conducted at the hospital to provide a data base against which the success of a patient self-medicated scheme could be judged. The survey, covering 820 doses to 40 patients in one ward, revealed 108 errors — a rate of 13 per cent. The most frequent error was that of the nurse signing the medication chart but

failing to give the dose. This accounted for one in three errors. Probably the most clinically significant errors, according to the survey team, were those of misinterpreting orders and dose. The chief executive officer

of the hospital (Mr John Smith) said that the hospital had a comparatively low rate of medication errors be’ cause of its system of giving out medicines. A pharmacist in a work station outside the patients’ rooms filled the prescriptions, labelled the drugs, and placed them in patients’ medication drawers, which were locked. Nurses got the medications from the drawers and administered them to patients according to a treatment sheet.